The latest in our series of writers unearthing forgotten movies highlights a moving documentary about a jazz musician killed in his prime

A minute into Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ 1959 standard Moanin’, its bluesy piano refrain is blown open by the piercing burst of a single trumpet note. That is Lee Morgan at 20 years old, soloing with a confidence that would come to define the so-called “hard bop” sound of jazz label Blue Note.

At 18, he had already played with legendary composer Dizzy Gillespie and, by 19, he was accompanying John Coltrane. By 33, he was dead – shot by his partner Helen.

Camilla Nielsson’s thrilling documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at the 2018 election that followed the ousting of Robert Mugabe

“A free, fair and credible election.” These words of promise echo throughout Camilla Nielsson’s riveting documentary, capturing the fervour of the 2018 presidential vote in Zimbabwe, the country’s first without Robert Mugabe since its independence.

While opening with the rip-roaring rallies for Nelson Chamisa, who is running for the presidency against the incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former aide, President is more than an intimate portrait of a charismatic opposition leader. Considering the fraudulent electoral practices that existed under Mugabe’s 30-year reign, this election concretises a collective cry for democracy to triumph over decades of corruption and lies. Such a desire, alas, comes with blood, sweat and tears.